Car-branded phones need to make a U-turn if they ever want to impress

Cars are slowly but surely merging, technologically speaking, with the smartphone in our pocket. Functionality is often repeated, from cellular connectivity to Spotify integration, and some infotainment touchscreens even show versions of the same software that runs on our phones. The car and the smartphone are becoming one. The relationship between car brands and smartphone makers is a long one, but before in-car tech caught up with mobile tech, the two worked together in a different way — by co-branding products. What have the results been like? Well, for the most part, we’re going to it’s a checkered past. Don’t believe us? Settle down while we explain. Land Rover The first name on our list perfectly encapsulates how car brands getting involved with smartphones can go well, and badly. Early on, the Land Rover name was used on rugged phones like the S1. They were phones for the Land Rover Defender owner, who needed a phone that still worked after it had fallen out of the cab into the mud, been run over, forgotten, and recovered a week later. These weren’t Land Rover phones, they were phones with the Land Rover name on them. Not so for the Land Rover Explore, a 2018 Android smartphone that was made for the modern Land Rover Discovery, Range Rover, or Evoque owner, not Farmer Giles in his Defender. Relevant features, a design with influence from the cars, and an actual reason to buy it — the Land Rover Explore is the way car… [Read full story]